1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a conference system, an information processor, a conference supporting method and an information processing method to be employed for supporting implementation of a conference.
2. Description of Related Art
In accordance with development of technologies such as communication technologies and image processing technologies, a conference system by which a conference can be smoothly held even when conferees of the conference are in places away from one another has been realized. In such a conference system, a plurality of terminal units are connected to a network, so as to display a common image in display sections of the respective terminal units. As a result, the conferees using the terminal units can be commonly provided with information necessary for the conference.
Hereinafter, a conferee in a position to give speech is designated as a speaker, a conferee in a position to listen to the speech of the speaker is designated as a listener, and when there is no need to distinguish a speaker from a listener, he/she is simply designated as a conferee.
Recently, a technique to recognize speech given by a speaker so as to display a result of speech recognition (hereinafter referred to as the original) is known. Furthermore, a technique to support a conference, such as one held between different countries or one whose members are different in the mother tongue, by displaying a result of translation of the original into a desired language (hereinafter referred to as the translation) is known (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-87472 (1995)).
As a result, the contents of speech given in a language that a listener cannot understand or has much difficulty in understanding can be displayed after translating the contents into a language that the listener can easily understand. Accordingly, the convenience for conferees can be improved.